A "lamentable failure"? The founding of Nightingale nursing in Australia, 1868-1884

Florence Nightingale's private assessment was that Lucy Osburn failed in her attempt to found Nightingale nursing in Australia. This assessment is directly at odds with those of historians who have unquestioningly accepted Osburn's success. An alternative narrative of the founding of Nightingale nursing in Australia is provided through examining why Nightingale thought Osburn failed. The judgment of failure had little to do with nursing practice or care. Nightingale's judgment was based on the personal characteristics she expected of the Nightingale nurse and her fear of public exposure of problems at the Nightingale School of Nursing at St Thomas's Hospital.     

Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic Research in Reunified Germany

During the past decade research into the German Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic has experienced an important revival. One clear sign of this renewed interest in the periods are the annual meetings of the Arbeitsgruppe Mesolithikum (Mesolithic Working Group) which have taken place every spring since 1992. At these meetings, which take place at changing venues, topical themes of Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic interest are presented by informal lectures and it is also possible to study regional collections (artifacts, raw materials) at first hand. Numerous contributions were subsequently published together in one volume (Conard and Kind (1998) Aktuelle Forschungen zum Mesolithikum/Current Mesolithic Research, Mo Vince, Tübingen). The present paper intends to complement that collection of papers with a synthesis of developments and perspectives and to present recent research highlights in the German Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic, together with a comprehensive bibliography, to a wider international audience.